amazon
Special Delivery
Many Books
Yesterday, my Amazon order rang the doorbell and I got a slightly hefty box of goodies to dive into. I had four items that I’d bought on behalf of my sister and my brother-in-law, and they came in mostly quite nicely. I also bought two presents, one of which was beautiful and I have to make it a point to get one for myself.
Then I also bought three books, one of which arrived slightly damaged, but I suppose I could live with it. I think my giant edition of Wind In The Willows arrived just fine, though, and that’s good enough for me.
Haircut
I’m going to try to get a haircut today. Something always crops up and prevents me from doing so. Wish me luck.
Dropped
I dropped my notebook yesterday. One of the corners of the hardcover has something of a dent in it now. It makes me a little sad to see it, but then again, I suppose getting it a little battered kind of helps with being less protective of the book.
First Day
It was the first day of school yesterday and it felt like the first half of the semester. That was quite an awful feeling, I suppose. Well, I’m sure it’ll pick up. At least I hope it does before we actually reach the first half of the semester. So much for hitting the ground running.
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Tweed
Editing
I’ve been editing. It’s not been fun. Everywhere I look it looks bad, though it’s fair to say that that happens to me every time I get here. I’m still trying to get a grasp of the whole thing, so that when I do a once-through I’ll be able to tell if it’s not uniform enough. It’s not really been going well. I might step away from it if I have to. I’m in no hurry, though I have to keep reminding myself about that.
Shopping
I wanted to shop for a few presents (far ahead of time) and I went on Amazon and browsed around quite a bit. In the process, I learnt about the variety of Amazon deals (okay, so I’m a bit slow to the party). I also identified a few things that I thought I could pick up, which made me quite happy. I’m just a little undecided on the presents and stuff, so I’ve yet to make an order.
On the other hand, I tried to find this set of collectible The Sandman postcards on Amazon. You see, a few years ago, they printed sets of 40 postcards and put them each in pretty boxes. I bought one of the boxes. Pretty postcards are one of those things that I like collecting, but for some reason, I thought of using them. So I used slightly over half of them over the years, and now I’m left with a diminished set. I thought I ought to get another one, but it wasn’t to be because it’s out of print and not available on Amazon anymore. If you have a heads-up on where I can get a new set for a reasonable price, do drop me a note here. Thanks.
Eleventh’s Costume
Here’s Matt Smith in-costume as the Doctor. I quite like the look of it. It kind of has a bit of the quirky charm you’d expect of an old Doctor and also the fashion restraint of a new Doctor. Very neat and clean, and he seems to wear it well. Can’t wait for the new series!
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July, July! (Return Orders)
Brand New Month
And the Web Walrus would like to remind you to flip your calendars.
Return Orders
A couple of weeks ago, I received my Amazon order for two books, one of them being Nick Brandt’s On This Earth. There was a problem between pages 8 and 9, because the edge was a bit stuck and there was also a bit of a tear. Basically, there was a very rough texture and some bits of page 9 on page 8 and a hole in page 9 itself. They weren’t even fully separated.
I tried to follow the returns policy of Amazon and one of the requirements was that I would have to send it back. So I arranged for a return, and printed the barcode and mailing address and all that. It was all going well until I arrived at the post office and learnt that the mailing of the book would cost more than the book itself. Aghast, I went back and deliberated over this for a while. (It should be noted that Amazon can only refund up to, I think, four USD from the postage costs.)
I wrote an email to Customer Service, and the reply was swift and extremely helpful. One of the resolutions offered was a replacement of the book at (almost) no further costs and without the need for me to send back my damaged copy. This was arranged for very quickly, and I saw the new order being made as well as the refund for the new order going through (and this is why I said almost, because the refund was about 1 SGD less than the amount paid, for some reason).
Yesterday, I received the new book and am now very happy with it. And I just wanted to say that the Amazon customer service was all quite excellent, extremely efficient and professional, and in all, very helpful.
Sometimes, good customer service just makes your day.
I Am
Slightly ahead of schedule, in the sense that I’ve been writing faster than I thought I would, but the project is also looking longer than I first thought it would be. I’m trying to keep the numbers down, but, you know, whatever it takes.
It’s becoming a bit monotonous. Or maybe that’s not the word for it. It’s very workman these days, very procedural. I’m just sort of piecing things together, filling in gaps and the like, which is something I obviously want to avoid. It probably has in part to do with how quickly I’m going, but my experience is that if my pace abates too much, I’ll end up just never getting anything done. Besides, like I was saying the last time, I’ve kind of got the momentum for the final run-in going, and I better capitalise on that and just ride the wave.
Shopping
Last Friday, I went shopping with my parents, and there was this bunch of bargain books outside Plaza Singapura. I think it was a Carrefour thing. From there, I got the Stephen Colbert book (I Am America (And So Can You!)), an Alice Munro book (The View From Castle Rock), some Philip Roth (Exit Ghost) and a Michael Chabon novel (Gentlemen Of The Road).
Apart from that, I also got a new Gravis bag for the new term. It is orange. And to top it all off, I got a couple of bits of stationery.
Battery
My laptop battery appears to have died.
Bah.
Off to work.
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